Wilfried Nancy, shoulders drooped and disconsolate, walked alone down the green tunnel at Celtic Park and, after one month of a two-and-a-half-year contract at the club, into an uncertain future in Glasgow.

Nancy had just heard the final whistle blow on Celtic 1-3 Rangers. He had witnessed Celtic take a 1-0 lead and assume control of both the contest and a potentially explosive occasion. It was shaping up to be his best day as the Celtic head coach. That Saturday’s second half unravelled so quickly and so sloppily will be the chief concern for the 48-year-old Frenchman and those who appointed him. A contrast will be made with counterpart, Danny Rohl, whose half-time tweaks transformed Rangers from awful to effective.

It feels longer, but Nancy’s first game with Celtic was on December 7; this was their sixth defeat in the eight matches under him. Celtic have not kept one clean sheet in that time.

As unoccupied green seats appeared in the stands throughout a messy, inept second half from Celtic, the happy half-time mood changed, and afterwards, there were protests outside the stadium’s main entrance at the top of The Celtic Way. Those were directed at the club’s current board, but they also included many who have already written off Nancy’s surprise appointment as a failed experiment.

Nancy had been brought to the club from Columbus Crew in MLS under the supervision of Paul Tisdale, the former Exeter City, Milton Keynes Dons and Stevenage manager who became head of football operations 15 months ago. There will be increased scrutiny of Tisdale after this latest loss. He was pictured in the stands yesterday beside Shaun Maloney, the Celtic coach who had been Martin O’Neill’s assistant during the latter’s brief return in November.

O’Neill was Nancy’s immediate, interim predecessor and had steadied a club rocked by the tumultuous departure of Brendan Rodgers in October. O’Neill, a Celtic figure of charisma and gravitas — their manager from 2000 to 2005 — could be an option again should club directors consider they have made an error in appointing Nancy and seek to address it swiftly; although if O’Neill watched this second half, he may have wondered afresh about the state of the squad.

So as it stands, Nancy will be in charge for Celtic’s next match — at home to Dundee United on Saturday — and having asked for time and patience in his pre-game press conference on Friday, he insisted post-match that his team are “really close” to being what he wants them to be. He also told BBC Scotland he feels that the board are behind him.

“This is not about myself,” Nancy said. “This is about disappointing the fans, because I know the meaning of this game. They pushed us in a good way in the first half, they were behind us, but when we conceded goals, we wanted to push again. I can understand the disappointment, but I also saw what we’re able to do.

“This is reality, but we have to stay together. We are really close, there are many things that can turn around. If it was not the case, I would not talk like this. We have many things that we are really close (to achieving) but this is not enough, regarding a few details. I really believe we can turn things around.

“We are together with the board.”

Celtic concede the second of three unanswered second-half goals in Saturday’s defeat (Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

Aligning himself with the hierarchy may be understandable, and Nancy has no alternative, but the board are unpopular with a large section of Celtic fans, and it will not help convince sceptics. Nancy called the situation a “tornado” on Friday.

He has inherited a squad that may not be good enough to progress to the knockout stages of the Europa League (they occupy the last of that competition’s 16 play-off places with two league-phase games later this month to go) but should be good enough to maintain their Scottish domestic dominance — Celtic have won the title 13 times in the past 14 years.

But on top of Rohl’s in-game changes, another managerial contrast Nancy faces is with O’Neill.

His eight games in charge featured only one loss and seven victories, including a League Cup semi-final win against Rangers at Hampden Park. Celtic conceded only six goals in those matches, three of them away to Midtjylland of Denmark.

Under Nancy, Celtic have now conceded 18 goals and scored 11, four of the latter against Livingston, the Scottish Premiership’s bottom club. His desire to play expansive, attacking football is obvious, and there was zest to Celtic as they went ahead through Yang Hyun-jun’s individual goal on 19 minutes. There were chances to double and triple that lead, but they were not taken, or were saved by Jack Butland.

But this Nancy approach also requires better defenders than Celtic currently possess. Cameron Carter-Vickers is a big loss with a long-term Achilles injury, as Auston Trusty’s inexplicable non-intervention when Youssef Chermiti made it 2-1 to the visitors just before the hour emphasised.

Chermiti had scored twice in his previous 21 appearances for the club and been the subject of derision among Rangers fans. He doubled his tally on Saturday, with Mikey Moore adding a third as Kasper Schmeichel’s erratic form in goal continued.

On Friday, Nancy lamented the fact that he did not have a pre-season with Celtic’s squad to instil his thinking and tactics, but O’Neill could point out that he did not get one either.

And for Celtic and Nancy, the day got worse. His first game had been against Hearts, arguably the biggest story in Scotland this season, even with the implosions at Celtic and Rangers (the two clubs have, between them, had seven different men in charge in 2025). Hearts won it 2-1, and two hours after Celtic’s latest defeat, Hearts won again, beating Livingston 1-0.

It means the Edinburgh club’s lead over Celtic at the top is back to six points, and they have a superior goal difference of nine. For the first time in four decades, there is a genuine possibility of a non-Glasgow club becoming Scotland’s champions.

Hearts host Celtic on Sunday, January 25. Whether Nancy will be in the away dugout for that one is a live question.